The present invention relates to an apparatus for displaying graveside adornment, such as flowers, memorial decorations and the like, placed on top of grave marking stones. Particularly, this invention relates to a kit for making a removable adornment planter that may be mounted on a variety of grave marking stones without damaging or marking the stone.
It is customary to place decorations adjacent to a gravestone or other grave markers. Typically, a container having flowers or other decorations therein is mounted or attached to such a stone, or placed near the stone on the ground. Cemetery groundskeepers find memorials placed on the ground near the grave to be obstacles that are difficult to maneuver around with mowers and the like. As a result of the difficulty in maneuvering around such memorials, cemeteries have promulgated rules requiring that decorations such as flowers, plant, plastic flowers and the like, must be removed prior to the days that the mowing and trimming is to be performed. Persons placing such decorations near a grave generally prefer for their decorations to be displayed for as long as possible, if not permanently, and thus are greatly inconvenienced by the requirement that these decorations are to be temporarily removed from the gravesite so that the groundskeepers may cut and trim the lawn.
The flower saddle for tombstones disclosed by Nesbitt and Sievers in U.S. Pat. No. 4,640,045, the flower pot supporting attachment for cemetery monuments disclosed by Boser and Mares in U.S. Pat. No. 3,310,911, and the floral display support for gravestones disclosed by Clark in U.S. Pat. No. 3,511,461 all disclose various types of saddle planters devices adapted to be mounted on a gravestone. All of these saddle planter devices are attachable to the gravestone by a wide variety of different types of brackets having cushioned legs that are designed to supply sufficient forces to the front and rear of the gravestone so that these saddle planter devices are held in place. One shortcoming of these types of devices is that they lack flexibility in adapting the device to mount onto the wide variety of different types styles of gravestones in existence today. In addition, these devices are likely to incorporate certain metallic components that will likely cause discoloration runoff marks down the surface of the gravestone when the metals are exposurde to the elements. Another drawback is that these devices is that they require the grieving user to use various tools to mount these device securely onto the stone. As a result, the user may view the requisite mounting process to be an unduly burdensome and complicated task. Furthermore, the user is also likely to improperly mount these devices and as a result these devices are subject to shifting or even falling off the gravestone.
The gravestone saddle planter disclosed by Quackenbush in U.S. Pat. No. 5,072,541 discloses a saddle planter that includes a bracketing leg configuration for supplying a horizontal force to the front and rear of the gravestone so that the saddle is secured in an upright alignment on the gravestone. One drawback with the Quackenbush ""541 is that the device is not readily adaptable to a wide variety of gravestone widths that are in existence today. As a result, the Quackenbush disclosed device may not exert sufficient force to maintain the saddle planter in the upright position if the gravestone is too narrow. Another drawback to the Quakenbush device is that the center of gravity of the flower pot is necessarily above the point of securement onto the gravestone, so that the flower pot saddle is prone to being easily toppled by a horizontal or sideways force exerted upon the device. Therefore, the Quackenbush ""541 device is subject to being misaligned or even toppled by horizontal forces such as the force exerted by a strong wind or the force exerted by a sideways push from a vandal terrorizing the cemetery.
The gravestone flower holder disclosed by Cassette in U.S. Pat. No. 5,519,966 discloses a holder for supporting flowers proximal to a gravestone having a plurality of apertures extending therethrough for receiving flower stems. One drawback to the Cassette disclosed device is that it is only envisioned to support a mesh screen member capable of holding only cut flowers. Therefore, the Cassette disclosed device does not envision a supportable flowerpot.
While all of the above-described devices fulfill their respective, particular objectives and requirements, the aforementioned patents do not describe a kit which is capable of allowing a grieving user to easily and conveniently construct a gravestone flower planter which is capable of being mounted above the cemetery lawn by being suspendable from the top portion of a gravestone so that the center of gravity of the device is below the attachment point(s) on the gravestone. Furthermore, none of the aforementioned patents describe a kit that is capable of allowing a user to custom fit the size of the planter around the top portion of the gravestone so that it evenly matches the perimeter of the gravestone.
Therefore, a need exists for a new and improved gravestone planter and kit that can be used to easily construct a gravestone planter which can be mounted above the cemetery lawn by being conveniently suspendable in a stable manner from the top portion of the gravestone as well as allowing a user to custom fit the planter to neatly wrap it around the top of the gravestone.
In this respect, the gravestone planter and kit according to the present invention substantially departs from the conventional concepts and designs of the prior art, and in doing so provides an apparatus primarily developed for the purpose of allowing a user to easily construct a gravestone planter that can be mounted well above the cemetery lawn by being conveniently suspendable in a stable manner from the top portion of the gravestone as well as allowing a user to custom fit the design of the planter to fit around the top of the gravestone.
A gravestone planter and kit that is capable of being used to construct a generally rectangular flower box having a continuous open trough capable of retaining potting soil and having a central open cavity in the middle of the flower box. The width and length dimensions of the constructed flower box are adjustable by slidably moving the four separate interconnected corner pieces. By adjusting the width and length of the constructed flower box the central cavity can be expanded to substantially match the particular dimensions of the top of a given post, such as the top of a gravestone. The dimensionally adjusted flower box may then be mounted around the top of any post that the central cavity of the flower box fits around. Mounting the flower box around the top of a given post is achieved by using at least one strap attached to two opposing sides of the flower box, so that the middle of the strap contacts the top portion of the post. The flower box is consequently suspended around the top of the post by using gravity to secure the flower box in place.
In view of the foregoing disadvantages inherent in the known type of gravestone planters now present in the prior art, the present invention provides an improved gravestone planter and kit, which will be described subsequently in great detail, which is capable of being used to construct a new and improved gravestone planter, and which is not anticipated, rendered obvious, suggested, or even implied by the prior art, either alone or in any combination thereof.
To attain this, the present invention essentially comprises a generally rectangular gravestone planter and associated kit capable of making a planter having a continuous open trough that can retain potting soil and has a central open cavity in the middle of the planter. The gravestone planter comprises a suspension strap and four interconnected corner pieces that are slidably attached to one another.
There has thus been outlined, rather broadly, the more important features of the invention in order that the detailed description thereof that follows may be better understood, and in order that the present contribution of the art may be better appreciated.
The present invention of the kit may also include duct tape so that the trough may be made watertight so that water may be held in the trough in order to nourish freshly cut flowers placed in the planter. The kit may also include a bag of potting soil so that the user may conveniently construct a living flower garden in the constructed planter. There are of course, additional features of the invention that will be described hereinafter and which form the subject matter of the claims attached.
Numerous objects, features and advantages of the present invention will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art upon reading of the following detailed description of presently preferred, but nonetheless illustrative, embodiments of the present invention when taken in conjunction with the accompany drawings. In this respect, before explaining the current embodiment of the invention in detail, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the details of construction and to the arrangements of the components set forth in the following description or illustrated in the drawings. The invention is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced and carried out in various ways. Also, it is to be understood that the phraseology and terminology employed herein are for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting.
As such, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the conception upon which this disclosure is based may readily be used as a basis for the designing of other structures, methods and systems for carrying out the several purposes of the present invention. It is important, therefore, that the claims be regarded as including such equivalent constructions insofar as they do not depart from the spirit and scope of the present invention.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a new and improved gravestone planter and kit for a gravestone planter that has all the advantages of the prior art gravestone planter devices and none of the disadvantages.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a new and improved gravestone planter and kit for a gravestone planter that may be easily and efficiently manufactured and marketed.
An even further object of the present invention is to provide a new and improved gravestone planter and kit for a gravestone planter kit that has a low cost of manufacture with regard to both materials and labor, and which accordingly is then susceptible of low prices of sale to the consuming public, thereby making such multipurpose storage unit and system economically available to the buying public.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a new gravestone planter and kit that provides in the apparati and method some of the advantages of the prior art, while simultaneously overcoming some of the disadvantages normally associated therewith.
One another object of the present invention is to provide a gravestone planter and kit for a gravestone planter that it is dimensionally adjustable along both the width and the length of the planter.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a gravestone planter and kit for a gravestone planter that has a central cavity of the planter that is also adjustable so that the central cavity may be used to fit around any given post such as a gravestone.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a gravestone planter and kit for a gravestone planter which is capable of being mounted above the cemetery lawn by being suspended from at least one strap which contacts the top portion of the gravestone. In doing so, the present invention offers the user a gravestone monument decoration which is aesthetically pleasing device which is simple to construct and to mount onto a gravestone and stable manner.
Further, the purpose of the foregoing abstract is to enable the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the public generally, and especially the scientist, engineers and practitioners in the art who are not familiar with patent or legal terms or phraseology, to determine quickly from a cursory inspection the nature and essence of the technical disclosure of the application. The abstract is neither intended to define the invention of the application, which is measured by the claims, nor is it intended to be limiting as to the scope of the invention in any way.
These together with other objects of the invention, along with the various features of novelty that characterize the invention, are pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part of this disclosure. For a better understanding of the invention, its operating advantages and the specific objects attained by its uses, reference should be had to the accompany drawings and description matter in which there is illustrated preferred embodiments of the invention.